Beware The Self-Deprecating Suck-Up
"To the most Reverend Father in Christ and most illustrious Lord, Albert, Archbishop and Primate of the Churches of Magdeburg and Mentz, Marquis of Brandenburg, etc., his lord and pastor in Christ, most gracious and worthy of all fear and reverence.
"The Grace of God be with you, and whatsoever it is and can do.
"Spare me, most reverend Father in Christ, most illustrious Prince, if I, the very dregs of humanity, have dared to think of addressing a letter to the eminence of your subliminity. The Lord Jesus is my witness that, in the conciousness of my own pettiness and baseness, I have long put off the doing of that which I have now hardened my forehead to perform, moved thereto most especially by the sense of that faithful duty which I feel that I owe to your most reverend Fatherhood in Christ. May your Highness then in the meanwhile deign to cast your eyes upon one grain of dust, and, in your pontificial clemency, to understand my prayer."
"The Grace of God be with you, and whatsoever it is and can do.
"Spare me, most reverend Father in Christ, most illustrious Prince, if I, the very dregs of humanity, have dared to think of addressing a letter to the eminence of your subliminity. The Lord Jesus is my witness that, in the conciousness of my own pettiness and baseness, I have long put off the doing of that which I have now hardened my forehead to perform, moved thereto most especially by the sense of that faithful duty which I feel that I owe to your most reverend Fatherhood in Christ. May your Highness then in the meanwhile deign to cast your eyes upon one grain of dust, and, in your pontificial clemency, to understand my prayer."
Opening paragraphs of Martin Luther's Ninety Five Theses, addressed to the Archbishop of Mainz and posted on the door of the Castle Church on Halloween night, 1517.
